GAINESVILLE, Ga. — The older Jeremy Kemp admits that the younger Jeremy Kemp would not have taken a 4-8 start to any season well at all. Especially one where they opened the season ranked No. 1 in their classification.
“I'll be honest with you, young Jeremy Kemp, there would have been a lot of concerns. I probably would have been hitting panic mode,” the Cherokee Bluff coach said earlier this week as his Bears prepared to play rival North Hall in the quarterfinals of the Class 3A baseball playoffs beginning on Wednesday at Cottrell Field.
The winner will move on to the Final 4 next week against the winner of the Peach County-Mary Persons series.
“We were having to play some guys that normally I wouldn't have played, and the younger me probably wouldn't have had the guts to play them. And that would have hurt us more in the long run.”
For North Hall’s Trevor Flow, a similar situation appeared to be brewing early on in 2025 when the Trojans lost No. 1 pitcher Kaleb Sexton presumably for the season in the first game of the year and opened with a 3-3 record a year after not making the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
“Yea, not a great start to things this year, especially after last year,” Flow said. “I think every year that you do this, you start to realize that your team kind of takes on your personality. So, you know, if you want your team to be calm and collected, then you can't live on the roller coaster of emotions. And I'm not great at it all the time.
“But when you're leading people and they’re watching you, you need to have a certain amount of control on what you do. I feel like I've calmed down some the last couple of years.”
That sounds boring on the surface for a pair of coaches who are known for their fiery nature and bringing that fire to their teams. But over the past four seasons, just the mention of anything where the Bears and Trojans are set to meet has brought the competitive fire out of the coaches, players, and fans.
And there should be plenty of reasons for both teams to feel they are being overlooked coming into this one.
North Hall (26-6) owned Cherokee Bluff (23-11) for the first four seasons of the Bears’ existence, mainly playing in the same region. Bluff, however, dominated the past two years, winning 5 of the last 6 matchups since 2023, including a sweep in 2024 while both were in Region 8-4A. The last time the Trojans, the overall No. 3 seed in Class 3A, won a series over the Bears was in 2022 when they swept Bluff as part of Region 7-3A.
Bluff, the No. 11 seed, fell out of the top 8 in Class 3A after dropping its Region 8-3A title series to Oconee County late in the season. That has put the 2024 Class 4A state runners-up on the road probably for the rest of the 2025 playoffs if they keep advancing.
Flow said they are well aware of the stats and the history between the two programs and schools. But both coaches also stated that these are two different teams this season.
“It’s two programs that have had success and have had good players, and know each other well,” Flow said. “I think just the battles of the kids knowing each other and, you know, wanting to be that program that's better than the other, I think, has created that rivalry all the way through all the other sports as well.
“We haven’t been great against them the last two years and the kids we have that were on those teams understand that. I think they’re ready to show that they can compete against them now.”
“(North Hall) is a good baseball team. I'm sure those guys have improved,” Kemp said. “I've only seen them this year when I've been scouting other teams that are in our region, like Jefferson. I know they've gotten a lot better. But I also feel like our guys have gotten a lot better too.”
Both teams have dealt with some major adversity during the year, especially having to revamp their pitching rotations.
Sexton has not played for the Trojans since the season-opener and their No. 2 pitcher at the time, Branson Crawford, was not eligible until the second series of Region 6-3A play. Bluff’s No. 1 pitcher coming into the season, Tucker Holton, has been in and out of the lineup much of the year dealing with an injury as well.
However, Holton may be as close to 100% as he’s been all season and KT Thompson, the Bears’ leading hitter the last two seasons, battled injuries early on but is almost back to 100% as well. Sexton could see some action if needed and Crawford has been dealing on the mound since joining the team.
Initial inspection says the Bluff lineup, which is averaging 8.17 runs/game vs. the Trojans pitchers (75 runs allowed, 2.34 ERA) is the matchup that could decide the series.
The Bears are led by a trio of thumpers in the middle of the lineup in Bryce Fontenot (13 HR, 41 RBI), Ethan England (8 HR, 45 RBI), and Bubba Coleman (8 HR, 31 RBI), who are all hitting .378 or higher.
North Hall has Crawford, Campbell Payton, and Jake Beard who have gotten the bulk of the starts but if Sexton is ready he could offer an added X-factor considering he has not thrown in a game since Feb. 10. Add in Smith McGarvey and Micah Jimerson at the back-end and the Trojans have the depth to limit the Bears offense, which has managed just 24 total runs (6.0 runs/game) in the playoffs so far.
“We're going to have to throw it well, and we're going to have to hit our spots or they will make you pay for mistakes,” Flow said. “One mistake in the wrong situation, one defensive mishap, could cost you the entire series. You can’t give that lineup extra 90s, they’re just too good.”
However, both coaches said don’t sleep on the Bears pitching staff or the North Hall lineup. The Trojans have hit the second-most home runs in program history (24) while Bluff has built depth on the mound with the absence of Holton for stretches during the season.
On the mound, Bluff is led by Gabe Gowder (9-1) who set the program’s all-time wins record during the regular season. Landon Kemp has been solid in the No. 2 spot with Nate Wilson, Coleman, and Logan Robinson, who has been solid on the back-end to close out games.
The Trojans, known over the years for their ability to small-ball teams into submission with bunts, hit-and-runs and stolen bases, has been leaning more on the long ball in 2025. The insertion of sophomore Custis Honeycutt into the lineup early in the region schedule ignited and stabilized a lineup that struggled early in the season. Crawford, Honeycutt, Kenny Faudy, and Jimerson all have 4 or more home runs on the season.
Kemp said no matter any of the stats, it will come down to what has almost always been the conventional thinking in playoff baseball.
“It's all about pitching and defense. Hitting kind of comes and goes,” he said. “No matter how great a hitting team you are, there's going to be days when you struggle. We hang our hat on pitching and playing great defense. That's what we're going to do, and we're going to continue to say that and do that, and hopefully our bats will come alive also.”
“Gabe Gowder is really good,” Flow said. “They have pitching, and other guys have shown glimpses of being dominant (on the mound) as well. Game 1 is going to be huge.
“With the power we’ve shown this year, I’ve been letting the guys swing away a little more here in the playoffs. But getting that first run is always big so we’ll see how things present themselves once we’re there.”
One thing is for sure. Come early. Cottrell Field may be about to see its biggest crowd in history.
“Two Hall County teams. Big rivalry. It's going to be a huge crowd. It's what playoff baseball is all about,” Kemp said. “It's just gonna be a fun, fun atmosphere.”
